Competencies in Community Health Management among Nursing Students in Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Trang

Abstract

This descriptive research aimed to study competencies in community health management among nursing students as perceived by themselves, to compare their competencies classified by year of study, and to evaluate actual competencies in community health management among the 4^th year nursing students. Sample was 200 nursing students in the 1^st , 2^nd , 3^rd , and 4^th year in the academic year 2019 calculated by using Taro Yamane’s formula. Stratified random sampling was applied. And all 79 nursing students in the fourth year were rated their actual competence by the nurse instructors. The research instrument was a questionnaire. Content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by three experts; the CVI was equal to 0.83.  Reliability was tested using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient yielding a value of 0.97. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and One-way ANOVA. The results of this study revealed as follows; 1) Overall, the nursing students rated their competence at a high level (M = 3.66, S.D. = 0.75). When divided into year of study, it found that the nursing students in the first and the second year had competencies in community health management at a moderate level (M = 3.21, S.D. = 1.02 and M = 3.48, S.D. = 0.27, respectively). And the nursing students in the third and the fourth year had competencies in community health management of the nursing students at a high level (M = 3.81, S.D. = 0.53 and M = 4.22, S.D. = 0.49 respectively), 2) When comparing the competencies in community health management of the nursing students among years of study, it was found that the 1^st and the 3^rd year , the 1^st and the 4^th year, the 2^nd and the 4^th year, and the 3^rd and the 4^th year had significant differences in community health management competencies (p<.05), and 3) The actual competence of the fourth year nursing students rated by the nurse instructors was at a high level (M= 4.16, SD.=.38).